Dems stick together — mostly — as primary race enters new phase

Katie Wilson and Dylan Ratigan share a moment ahead of a forum on Thursday, Feb. 22 in Johnstown, New York.

Photo by Pete DeMola

PLATTSBURGH | The Democratic primary for New York’s 21st Congressional District entered a new phase last week with a series of fast-moving developments that have upended what has otherwise been a static contest.

The entry of Dylan Ratigan, a former MSNBC host and entrepreneur, into the crowded field last Wednesday shook up the race and led to two candidates dropping out within 48 hours.

And Katie Wilson on Thursday announced she has tentatively secured the Working Families Party endorsement.

“I’ve earned the endorsement of the Working Families Party, and that means I’m on the ballot,” Wilson told attendees at a candidate’s forum in Johnstown last Thursday.

“Local leaders of the WFP voted to endorse Ms. Wilson,” a spokesman, Dom Leon-Davis, told The Sun on Monday. “The final decision will be made later this week.”

Wilson said she doesn’t plan on being a spoiler in the effort to unseat Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Willsboro) this November and still intends on clinching the Democratic nomination.

“I do promise you that being on the ballot twice makes this race a hell of a lot more winnable in the general election,” Wilson told The Sun.

But Wilson is also the only Democratic candidate who has refused to take a pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee.

“I’m not taking that pledge,” Wilson said. “I’m going to support someone who I think can win.”

Wilson must still circulate petitions for both parties ahead of the April 12 filing deadline.

The Democratic primary is June 26.

The developments injected a new sense of urgency into what’s been a otherwise languid and uneventful race to unseat Stefanik, who is seeking a third term.

PLEDGE TO SUPPORT

The rest of the pack is sticking together.

Eight candidates are running for the Democratic nomination, and all but Wilson have pledged their support to the eventual nominee and promised they will not wage a third-party campaign.

Candidates took the pledge at a forum last month in South Glens Falls.

And those who have entered the race since then have also signed on, including Ratigan and David Mastrianni, a Saratoga-based oncologist.

“I suspect I will be of most use to them in the issue of healthcare, and it will be my privilege to help them get all of our neighbors coverage,” Mastrianni told The Sun.

CORPORATE PAC PLEDGE

Each candidate offered varying degrees of support to the eventual nominee, from donating what remains of their finances to redeploying their volunteers.

“The way I will do it will be to ask all of the people who support me to support them,” said Tedra Cobb at a forum in Plattsburgh earlier this month. “I have over 500 volunteers now, an army of people who are committed to working hard for me, and those people, I believe, will be committed to working for whomever it is that wins the primary.”

The pact joins a parallel attempt by one candidate to urge his colleagues to not to accept donations from corporate political action committees.

Patrick Nelson, a Stillwater-based activist, has made removing the corrosive influence of money in politics a central campaign theme, and has vowed not to accept funds from corporate PACs.

Nelson asked fellow candidates to take the pledge at the forum in January. Since then, Wilson, Ronald Kim and Don Boyajian have accepted.

Nelson, who served as a delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, has issued stern warnings to his fellow Democrats against accepting funds for corporate interests, and has insinuated voters should not support candidates who do so.

“If they take corporate money, I don’t think you can support them,” Nelson told attendees at the Plattsburgh forum earlier this month.

But he’s since walked that statement back, and said he will support the eventual nominee — even if they decline to take his clean money vow.

“Yes, I will support them in the general election,” Nelson told The Sun in Johnstown. “But I think that they’re going into something that’s going to make them harder to win if they’re taking that money, and it’s going to make them less effective as a leader.”

He added: “A corporate Democrat is better than a corporate Republican. But a real Democrat is better than a corporate Democrat.”

Nelson said if he falls short in clinching the nomination, he will hold the eventual nominee accountable throughout the election process and their term in office.

“But I intend to be that nominee,” he said.

Nelson noted at the forum in Plattsburgh that the Green Party had been lobbying him to leave the Democrats and run on their line.

But he flatly ruled that out, citing his role as an elected Democratic Committee member in Saratoga County, petitioning for Democrats, donating funds and otherwise helping candidates get elected.

“I am a member and leader of the Democratic Party,” Nelson said. “I’m not going to be running on another line. This is my party, and I am seeking their nomination. When we were the party of the New Deal under Franklin Roosevelt, we won a lot of elections — so I’m trying to get us back to victory.”

Nelson did, however, call for rank choice voting. Also known as “instant runoff,” the system allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, a measure advocates argue helps voters better select a candidate that represents the majority of voters.

“They haven’t been given that at this point because the system is rigged against them,” Nelson said in South Glens Falls.

THIRD PARTY UNWISE

Joining Nelson, Wilson, Ratigan, Kim, Boyajian, Cobb and Mastrianni in vying for the nomination is Emily Martz, who admitted at the Plattsburgh forum that a potential Green Party candidate posed a real threat to Democrats, and she would try to neutralize that by continuing to reach out to all voters.

Greens ran a candidate in 2014 and 2016, but two-time nominee Matt Funiciello has said he will not run this cycle, and the party has not selected a candidate.

Clinton County Democratic Chairman Sara Rowden said she wasn’t aware of Wilson’s Working Families Party announcement, and wasn’t speaking in reference to any candidate in particular.

“We’ve seen the third party issue on the race in the past when the Green Party had a candidate, and it seriously impacted their ability to be elected,” Rowden told The Sun on Monday.

Funiciello, for his part, has criticized the spoiler argument as erroneous in the past, arguing that all candidates are spoilers of each other.

The Working Families Party line doesn’t necessarily equate to a third-party candidacy.

If a candidate wins their endorsement, and also becomes the Democratic nominee, they would be on the ballot twice.

“There is a really interesting maneuver that can be done we’ve been referring to as the double bump,” Wilson said.

But falling short could pose a problem.

“I don’t think that’s wise,” Rowden said. “That will create a problem for getting a Democrat elected into this spot, and I don’t think having the Working Families Party line would allow them to win.”

RATIGAN FACTOR

Ratigan’s entry to the race last week has led to two candidates ending their campaigns.

Sara Idleman, a Washington County lawmaker, dropped out and pledged her support to Cobb, citing Ratigan’s controversial track record, including his admission he’s never voted.

Tanya Boone, a former union organizer and businesswoman, told The Sun she plans on meeting candidates this week before making an endorsement.

Democratic officials have said they’re pleased at such a large field, and have declined to endorse a candidate, including the chairs in Clinton, Essex and Warren counties.

“The (Clinton County) Democratic Committee has been consistent from the beginning,” Rowden said. “They were clear they wanted the primary process to run its course and would not endorse one candidate.”

But she admitted Ratigan’s entry has acted as somewhat of a game changer, and has forced his opponents to acknowledge some hard realities.

“This is big time stuff,” she said.

Rowden estimated about 5 and 6 Democratic candidates would ultimately make the ballot.

The race was somewhat static two weeks ago, with various candidates touting themselves as frontrunners based on straw polls (Nelson, Cobb) as well as their fundraising prowess, including Boyajian, who has been the top fundraiser in two consecutive quarters.

“Now there’s a real heavyweight in the race,” said a person familiar with Democratic thinking in the district. “He has challenges and more baggage than people realize, but it doesn’t wash away that he’s a national figure.”

Republicans said they were thrilled at Ratigan’s entry.

“The Democrats’ field in #NY21 is a liberal clown car with @DylanRatigan at the wheel,” wrote National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Chris Martin on Twitter.